Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) possess excellent mechanical, optical and electrical properties, and have been proposed for use in a wide range of applications. However, as-produced SWNTs are aggregated due to strong van der Waals interactions between individual tubes.
Furthermore, as-produced SWNTs typically consist of mixtures of metallic and semiconducting species with different diameters and chiral angles. Their poor solubility in water and the presence of metallic tubes hinder to a certain extent their use in applications such as field effect transistors (FETs).
Therefore, there is a need to reduce aggregation and to disperse the carbon nanotubes as individual tubes.